Sunday, July 22, 2007

start of the octet truss...the hard part

Ask and you shall receive, Jim...maybe.

Jim suggested building an octet truss, a very strong and lightweight structure. I decided to give it a try. If you are not familiar with the octet truss, click here real quick. The part below is the left most corner in the picture. For now you'll have to imagine the large tube capped and the four beams extended out, joining with similar junctions. I will use the large tube, uncapped, to connect the middle junctions. That's the rough plan for now anyway. However, and I really do hate bringing this up, but I anticipate computer performance problems that hinder building a very large truss; this may have to be a proof of concept thing.Looking into the junction: You can see that everything is very symmetrical and orderly.Same down here too:What? You want a tube view to see the structure clearly? I don't know. There is a balance between trade secrets and science. Well, okay.And off we go...

MTF

Addendum: Those familiar with NE1 will notice that there are some bonds in the tube view that are not graphitic. This was corrected shortly after this picture was taken.